Soybean (Glycine max) is a major grain crop valued for the high levels of oil and protein found in soybean seed. Soybean breeding has resulted in significant improvements in yield potential, stability of yield, adaptation of the species to mechanical harvest, and yield protection through improved disease resistance. Soybean is useful not only as a seed for producing soybean plants, but also has utility as a grain. The grain can be used as a food source for both animals and humans. Soybean is widely used as a source of protein for animal feeds for poultry, swine and cattle. The soybean grain is therefore a commodity. The soybean commodity plant products include but are not limited to protein concentrate, protein isolate, soybean hulls, meal, flower, oil and the whole soybean itself. Due to the nature of plant science agriculture, broadly defined as a manipulation of available plant resources to meet the needs of the growing human population, the environment in which plants are grown for agricultural production continuously offers new obstacles to agricultural production. Each new cultivar released to agricultural production is selected for the purpose of increasing yield resulting from increased disease resistance to prevalent diseases, or from direct or indirect improvement in yield potential or efficiency of production. Development of stable, high yielding cultivars with superior characteristics is an ongoing goal of soybean breeders.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need to develop new soybean varieties that are stable, high yielding cultivars, and express superior agronomic characteristics.